Disembarked with Gear: 3 Stupid Travel Luxuries I Love

When you live on the road for months or even years at a time the whole Minimalism decision kind of gets taken out of your hands. Or perhaps, rather, it’s put directly in your hands because you can own as much as you can carry. You are Minimalist by default.

It’s a lifestyle that makes you appreciate weird, little luxuries. And I’m talking the most basic of luxuries, like a hot cup of coffee, a cool breeze, or vision.

To these ends, here are three simple things I’ve picked up over the course of my meanderings that are worth more than their size or cost. Consider this an exercise in figuring out what basic, packable luxuries will best support your life of travel

Portable Immersion Water Heater: $14

When you regularly fall asleep in unfamiliar apartments scattered all over the globe, it is inevitable that you will eventually wake to discover no means of boiling water for your morning coffee or tea. One of these simple coil heater contraptions will have you a scalding-hot mug of water in five minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wide-Angle Smartphone Camera Lens: $28

At this point smartphone cameras can capture pretty outstanding quality, but their field of view is limited. It’s why the ends of anything really huge gets cut off, or why you can never quite fit in the whole room. It’s the difference between getting the whole bay or a few boats; the entirety of Notre Dame or just a tower. The solution: a clip-on wide-angle lens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crappy Fan: ???

Istanbul is hot in August, as is most the rest of Turkey. This crappy little fan I found in one of the tunnel malls for what literally might have been pennies was a game changer. Its rechargeable battery is useless, but plugged into a USB or powerpack it works fine, making hot afternoons at the desk or sweltering nights in bed significantly more comfortable. The first one I bought died a few months later in Thailand, where I promptly found another. That was seven months ago, and it has since cooled me through the tropics spanning two continents and three countries.